Onward and Upward

As usual, been forever since I posted.  I'm OK with it.

This spring/summer I let my love for beer, pizza and snack type food (aka junk food) get the best of me and my weight went from 166lbs in May up to 180lbs in September.  Sure I still worked out and still pushed hard to get stronger, but that wasn't helping my weight.

Additional contributors to my weight gain.  1) Inconsistent workout schedule  2) Bad knees

The workout schedule, I was accustomed to working out 5 to 6 days per week in the comfort of my own home, starting it at 5AM.  For the past few months I've been struggling to find a consistent schedule with my buddy Kev at the gym.  At a minimum I want to get 3 days per week at the gym with him.  Again, its been a real struggle between his schedule, my schedule and everything else.  In addition, the workouts are starting at 8PM at night, not y best time to workout, but it'll have to do.  He pushes me hard and makes me move weights that I wouldn't otherwise feel comfortable with in my own home, so, its a positive thing.

The knees.  I went to an orthopedic Dr and got them checked out.  I was diagnosed with patellofemoral pain syndrome.  The pain had reached the point where I couldn't walk up stairs or hills.  It was far too uncomfortable to try and push off my feet.  Make no mistake, the issue isn't my feet.  I found myself holding onto railings and pulling myself up stairs to get up stairs and leaning on the railings to try and walk down them.  Absurd for sure.  I can run a mile in under 9 minutes but can't walk a flight of steps.  Dr gave me physical therapy script as my solution and that has been working out quite well.

September came and reality was I needed to get things back under control.  I couldn't keep drinking a beer or two every night or other night for that matter.  Insert 21 Day Fix.  We already own the program and honestly I've never, ever followed the nutrition portion of any Beachbody program.  Why not give it a shot.  We've just wrapped up week 2 of that and I'm down 6lbs, which I'm good with.  It took me over 4 months to put on almost 14lbs, I'm not going to lose that in 2 weeks.  Forward progress is forward progress.

I just completed my first OCR (Obstacle Course Race) last weekend.  It was the Mudderella.  It was definitely a fun event.  The course was 5 miles long and it only had 13 to 14 obstacles.  I was hoping for less running and more obstacles as I had not done any running since early April and was really worried about my knees.  As it turned out my legs were stronger than I thought and my body as a whole held up really well.  The obstacles I didn't find all too challenging, the biggest challenge was mental and the running I guess.  It was awesome to have my family there to help support me.  It was also awesome to be able to do this with a couple rock stars from my fit group.  It proved to me that I could do this and that I also needed to push myself harder.

Next challenges are 1) to stay on track with nutrition  2) keep pushing for 3 nights at the gym and a couple mornings at home (cardio/stretching) 3) the F.I.T. Epic Challenge.   Until next time.